Sony Ericsson concluded its week with a warning on Friday that it will likely record a loss of between $461 million and $529 million for its current financial quarter, which ends at the conclusion of the month. The cellphone designer directly blames the shortfall on "weak consumer demand" and in clearing stock for its existing supply and sales chain. It also expects to ship just 14 million phones with a typical asking price of about $163.

The estimates confirm even greater difficulty at Sony Ericsson than in past quarters. It had already posted a $248 million loss in the last quarter of 2008 and had shipped about 24.2 million phones, or about 73 percent more. Although the end of the holidays accounts for a large portion of the drop, the predicted decline hints at greater problems still for the company.

Sony Ericsson's mounting problems have been unofficially but largely attributed to its lack of modern smartphones outside of the XPERIA X1, which in the US isn't available discounted by a carrier. The problem isn't likely to be addressed until the second half of 2009 when the company releases at least one Android phone as well as Symbian Foundation devices like the Idou.